fMRI Techniques for Studying Neural Substrates of Expressive Agrammatism and Normal Language Productio

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Agrammatism; R47.0; Dysphasia and aphasia

• Registration Number: DRKS00028572
• Lead Sponsor: Director of Division of Cognitive Clinical Sciences at RWTH University Clinic

Brief Summary

Not available

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2022-05-06
• Last Update Posted: 19 August 2024

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 110

Inclusion Criteria

General: Age from 18 years; German as first language; Right-handedness (using the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory).

For patients: Broca's aphasia with agrammatic speech production and the ability to use at least two-word utterances (aphasia and its severity are classified using the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT); Etiology: stroke.

Exclusion Criteria

For healthy subjects only: confounding neurological disease (e.g., history of traumatic brain injury), dementia, or cognitive impairment the degree of which interferes with participation in the study.

For patients: other neurological diseases and disorders (e.g. neurocognitive disorder due to dementia).

General: Other basic physical illnesses that interfere with the examination due to their type and severity or have an impact on the parameters to be examined; Mental or behavioral disorder that may interfere with the investigation or acute suicidality; Drug, alcohol, or painkiller abuse; Pregnancy; Presence of electromagnetically influenced or metal-containing medical devices in or in constant connection with the body (e.g. pacemakers, drug pumps, cochlear implants); Presence of metal parts in the body (e.g. screws after a bone fracture, metal splinters, metal prostheses, non-MR compatible vessel clips); a known seizure disorder (epilepsy); Heart and/or brain surgery; Hypersensitivity to TMS for Experiment 3 (will be ruled out during recruitment)

Study & Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The aim of the present study is to investigate neuronal correlates of morpho-syntactic processing during normal and agrammatical speech production with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The further aim of the study is to investigate the functional reorganization patterns of the language production network in the brain after damage to the language regions during expressive agrammatism and after short-term disruption of Broca's area (using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)) with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).